An air conditioner, i.e., a room air conditioner, is a set of machines configured to vary the temperature of air in a space area (which is typically airtight). It functions to adjust the temperature, humidity, purity, flow rate and other parameters of the air in the room (or the airtight space or area) to thereby satisfy the requirement on comfort of a human body or on a process flow. Traditionally it is known to utilize the air conditioner as a cooling device, in which an indoor machine is connected with an outdoor machine through a refrigerant pipe.
The air conditioner is categorized into a cooling-only air conditioner and a cooling-heating air conditioner, both of which operate under the same principle, and the air conditioner typically is used with Freon as a refrigerant. Freon is characterized by releasing a large amount of heat when being changed from the gas state into the liquid state and absorbing a large amount of heat when being changed from the liquid state into the gas state. The air condition has been designed under this principle.
A compressor compresses the refrigerant in the gas state into the refrigerant in the gas state with high temperate and high pressure and then feeds the refrigerant to a condenser (the outdoor machine) where the refrigerant radiating heat is changed into the refrigerant in the liquid state with normal temperature and high pressure, so hot wind is fed out of the outdoor machine.
Then the refrigerant enters an evaporator (the indoor machine) through a capillary, and the refrigerant entering the evaporator through the capillary suddenly becomes larger in volume and thus the pressure thereof becomes lower, so the refrigerant in the liquid state will be gasified into the refrigerant in the gas state with low temperature while absorbing a large amount of heat, so that the evaporator will become clod, and a fan of the indoor machine drives the indoor air through the evaporator, so cold wind is fed out by the indoor machine; and vapor in the air will be condensed into water drops while encountering the cold evaporator, and the water drops flows out through a water pipe, so the water will flow out of the air conditioner.
In a heating process, there is such a component referred to as a four-way valve so that the refrigerant flows in the condenser and the evaporator in an opposite direction to that in a refrigerating process, so the cold wind is fed out of the outdoor machine and the hot wind is fed out of the indoor machine in the heating process.
In the prior art, a home user typically uses a separated air conditioner instead of a centralized air conditioner, i.e., an air conditioner including an outdoor machine, and an indoor machine cooperating with the outdoor machine, and with the separated air conditioner in use, different air conditioners need to be arranged at different locations, e.g., an air conditioner is arranged in a sitting room, an air conditioner is arranged in a bedroom, and an air conditioner is arranged in a dining room. Each air conditioner is provided with a remote controller, and the user can control each air conditioner using the remote controller, e.g., power on the air conditioner, power off the air conditioner, adjustment temperature, etc.
The inventors of this application have found in making of technical solutions according to embodiments of the invention at least the following technical problems in the prior art.
With the centralized air conditioner in the prior art, although a plurality of indoor machines can be provided with heating or refrigerating by a plurality of outdoor machines assembled together, there is absent such a centralized control platform among a plurality of centralized air conditioners that the plurality of centralized air conditioners are networked and controlled, so there is such a technical problem that no centralized control can be performed effectively to distribute cold source or heat source among the respective centralized air conditioners as needed.
With the centralized air conditioner in the prior art, there are a plurality of compressors in the outdoor machine, so it is necessary to control lubricating oil to be distributed uniformly among the compressors, but the compressors have to be structurally altered more or less, or pipes for uniform distribution of the lubricating oil have to be connected among the compressors, in uniform lubricating oil distribution schemes in the prior art, so there is a technical problem of a complicated implementation of the schemes.
In the prior art, the respective separated air conditioners which are installed and operated separately can not be controlled centrally but have to be controlled separately in the prior art, so each air conditioner may have to be provided with its own control device, thus necessitating a large number of hardware or software resources, which may come with a waste of the resources and also become complicated to control.
The respective separated air conditioners in the prior art can not be networked for operation, and one outdoor machine can only provide one or more particular corresponding indoor machines with refrigerating or heating, but cold source or heat source can not be distributed as needed as a whole, which may result in a waste of the resources.
Moreover since the separated air conditioners in the prior art can not be networked for operation, if the outdoor machine in one of the separated air conditioners fails, then the indoor machines corresponding thereto may not be accessible although they can operate normally, due to the failure of their corresponding outdoor machine, thus underutilizing the resources.